Page:A letter to the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P. on the state of Ireland.djvu/29

 With respect to the number of holdings in Ireland not exceeding one acre, and between one and five acres, in the year 1866, I have the following return:—

The Irish labourer was long deprived of that resource which the English farmer's son of a large family, or labourer without employment, found in Warwickshire, Yorkshire, or Lancashire. English legislation prohibited competition with English manufactures; but the facilities of locomotion, and a change in our laws, have greatly improved the Irishman's condition. An Irishman goes to London in few hours, and at small expense. Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, teem with Irish. Five-and-thirty years ago, in the case of distress, the Irish labourers were sent back to Ireland under the Poor Law Removal Acts; but at present, if they have been able to support themselves for three years, they are entitled to relief in the place of their residence. The consequence is, that about one-fourth of the destitute relieved by the poor-rates in Birmingham are Irish. The Irish have, in fact, the resource in our manufacturing towns which the English have long enjoyed, and our unworthy jealousy has been righteously defeated.

In considering the vexed question of the relation of landlord and tenant, we are met (as in all Irish questions) by theorists, who wish to treat Ireland as a sheet of white paper, and write on it, with the utmost confidence that they will be believed and fol-